Petrified Forest National Park - Apachesaurus (U.S. National Park Service)

Type Species: Apachesaurus gregorii Hunt, 1993

Other Species: none

Synonyms:
Anachisma
Dicytocephalus
Kalamoiketor

Type Specimen: UCMP 63845, nearly complete skull

Type Locality: J. T. Gregory’s Quarry #2 (UCMP locality 6649), Quay County, New Mexico

Type Horizon and Age: Upper Redonda Formation. Late Triassic.

Distribution: Redonda Formation, Dockum Group, New Mexico; Cooper Canyon Formation, New Mexico and Texas; Santa Rosa Formation, New Mexico; Tecovas Formation, Dockum Group, New Mexico; Lower Petrified Forest Member, Chinle Formation, Arizona; Upper Petrified Forest Member, Chinle Formation, Arizona; Owl Rock Member, Chinle Formation, Arizona

Discussion: Apachesaurus is a diminutive metoposaurid with skull lengths of less than 20 centimeters. The most common elements recovered from this animal are the vertebral centra, which are diagnostic due to their elongate nature and excavated articular faces. The pelvis is advanced in these animals suggesting that they were of a more terrestrial habit than other metoposaurs. At Petrified Forest National Park, Apachesaurus is very common at the Dinosaur Hill locality in the Painted Desert and also in the Flattops area of the park, both in the Upper Petrified Forest Member.

References:

Branson, E.B., and M.G. Mehl, 1929. Triassic amphibians from the Rocky Mountain region. University of Missouri Studies 4:155-239.

Gregory, J. T., 1980. The otic notch of metoposaurid labyrinthodonts, pp. 125-136 in: Jacobs L. L. (ed.) Aspects of Vertebrate History: Essays in Honor of Edwin H. Colbert. Museum of Northern Arizona.

Davidow-Henry, B., 1987. New Metoposaurs from the southwestern United States and their phylogenetic relationships. Unpublished MS thesis, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 75 p.

Hunt, A.P., 1993. Revision of the Metoposauridae (Amphibia: Temnospondyli) and description of a new genus from Western North America, pp. 67-97 in: Morales, N. (ed.), Aspects of Mesozoic Geology and Paleontology of the Colorado Plateau, Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 59

Long, R.A., and P.A. Murry, 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) tetrapods from the southwestern United States. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 4.